Non-Rotating Ski-Rope Retriever

Most ski-rope retrievers of the prior art employ rotating reels. A few, e.g. Steward U.S. Pat. No. 3,113,563 and Palmieri U.S. Pat. No. 3,498,563, use a fixed-axis non-rotating drum and a rack-driven arm for winding-up the rope and for guiding the paying-out thereof. The bearings of rotating parts are susceptible to wear or to binding by dirt or corrosion, and are more costly to manufacture. Most prior-art retrievers are bulky when not in use, and cranks constitute obvious hazards.

The objects of the present invention are to overcome most of the disadvantages of the prior-art devices by providing a ski-rope retriever that is very economical of manufacture and upkeep; that is quickly and easily attachable to and detachable from a small semi-permanently installed support; and that is swingable from its use position to a position for easy manual winding-up of the ski rope, for secure storage of the rope, for minimal space use, and for minimal personal-injury hazard. Other objects and advantages will appear as the following description proceeds.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the preferred form of the invention in its use position.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the device in its retrieving and storage position.

FIG. 3 is a enlarged central-portion elevational view from the right in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the showing of FIGS. 1 and 3 taken on the line 4--4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the sheet-metal blank from which the semi-permanently attached support is formed by bending.

FIG. 6 is a partial view similar to FIG. 4, but showing the support of FIGS. 3 and 4 with an additional bend for transom-only mounting (instead of the transom-and-deck mounting of FIG. 4).

With reference now to the drawings, the numeral 11 generally designates the retriever, which comprises a reel-shaped drum 13 and its support 15. Numeral 17 is a conventional ski rope, 19 a conventional tow bar, and 21 a common dog-leash-type spring clip for releasably attaching the boat end of a ski rope to an eye-screw 23 fixed to a boat transom T of a boat B, which boat is shown as having an outboard motor M and a rear deck D. The spring clip 21 can be omitted and the rope simply tied to the eye-screw 23.

The drum 13 is preferably made of a tough, smooth and preferably flexible plastic material, but could be made of corrosion-resistant metal (e.g. aluminum). As shown it is made of several pieces thermoplastically welded or cemented together. The rear (when upright) or upper (when folded-down) part 25 has its open face closed by a slightly curved disk 27 for increased strength, improved appearance and water-exclusion. The rear (when upright) or lower (when folded-down) drum part 29 has a stepped flange 31 defining a seat for a flange 33 on the part 25, the mating flanges being thermoplastically welded or cemented together. A solid bar or block 34 is either molded integrally with the drum part 29 or later fixed thereto. The bar 34 has depressions 35 (for a purpose hereinafter described) and a transverse bore 38 to receive a removable hinge pin 39 for quick and easy attachment and detachment of the drum 13 to and from its support 15.

The support 15 could be molded of stiff reinforced plastic material, but is preferably formed from a flat corrosion-resistant sheet-metal blank, blendable along the dashed lines as shown in FIG. 5. Slots 43 define fingers 45 bendable upwardly and bowed to form detent protuberances 47, which are engageable in detent depressions 35 (FIGS. 3 and 4) when the drum 13 is in its folded-down position of FIGS. 2 and 4.

Slots 49 define a tab 5 bendable downwardly to constitute a stop member 51 for holding the drum 13 in its rearwardly tilted position of FIG. 4. Slots 43 and 49 also define strap portions 53 which, when bent up along lines 55, constitute the side elements of the support 15. Blank portions 57 and 59 lie flat on the upper edge of transom T and on an adjacent coplanar portion of deck D, and are semipermanently attached thereto by screws 61 (or bolts).

The hinge pin 39 can be of any known easily removable type but could be formed, as shown in FIG. 3, with second portion 63 parallel to the hinge portion 39 and joined to it by an integral spring loop 65. The free end of portion 63 is bent to form a catch 67 releasably engageable under the edge of the base of support 13 to fasten the hinge pin 39 in place and to permit its easy removal.

In FIG. 2, the hand H and the arrows show how the rope is manually retrieved and stored.

The support portion 59 is bendable downwardly, as shown in FIG. 6, to permit transom-only mounting of the retriever 11.